A study on the qualitative and quantitative distribution of Amphipod fauna in the canakkale strait

This study presents the results of a study carried out on the amphipod fauna distributed in the soft bottoms between the depths of 7-26 m at the south part of the Çanakkale Strait in 2006-2007. The sampling was done on a seasonal basis with van Veen grab at 11 stations; six of them were located along the European shelf and the remaining five stations were in the Asian shelf. In addition, seven more stations located in the middle line of the Canakkale Strait were sampled by means of van Veen grab, drej and box-core. A total of 6569 individual amphipods belonging to 92 different species from 22 familia were determined. Two species (Melphidipella macra (Norman, 1869) and Monocorophium sextonae (Crawford, 1937)) were new records for the Turkish Seas and 55 species were recorded for the first time for the Turkish Straits System and 71 species were new records for the Canakkale Strait. The number of individuals for all species, total biomass, appearance frequency, dominancy, species diversity, similarity of stations were also estimated. In addition, environmental variables measured at each station such as, sediment grain size, organic carbon and total nitrogen contents of the sediment, and CTD values of the water column have been presented.According to the results of the one-way and two- way ANOVA, no significant effect of seasonally measured environmental variables on the Amphipod was established. The Spring was observed to be the main reproduction period for amphipods in the Canakkale Strait.